sanitizing your Fresh water tank

[thecarpenter]

can somebody please let me know if you are supposed to sanitize the water that you put into the tank either from the city or just gravity fed. Like small amount of chlorine or something just so that when it sits there for let's say a week that it doesn't start growing bacteria, not that i'm drinking it but just curious.

Jayco baja 09'

[RaveOn]

You should sanitize when the rv is new and at the start of every season. Use about a half a cup of bleach and fill the fresh water tanks with water then run the dilution through the taps and let it sit for 6 hours or so then run the rest of if through the taps. You can then do the same but with vinegar and water then fill and flush with clean water. As far as from the rv sitting for a week or 2 you should b good. I do however run the hot water long enough to flush the tank before turning the water tank on.

[Moose73]

I just sanitized my water tank for this year. The manual - if you choose to use what it says - says that you should mix 4 teaspoons of bleach in 1 gallon of water and use that mixture for every 5 gallons of water the tank holds. I used this exactly and could smell the bleach when I ran the taps at my sink, shower, and outdoor shower (hot and cold). It said to leave the solution in there for 3 hours but I ended up with an overnight before draining and flushing with fresh water.

Like RaveOn said, I don't think you'll need to worry about it for just a week or two even but I plan on draining my tank when I'm home from each trip. In my case I'll probably be hooked up to city water most of the time, initially anyway, so I'm going to show up to the campground with an empty tank. If you're concerned with the sanitation still you can always buy some tablets and dilute them into a gallon of water then poor it in the tank - always good to have something like that around.

[Huntsvillian]

Newbie here going to be sanitizing for the first time this weekend.

Is this mixture safe to "dump" in the ditch?

I only ask as I do not live in the city and my plan was to sanitize with the grey drain open as I drain the system before refilling and draining again.

Cheers.